HAL employees' strike continues, unions reject management

Bengaluru: The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited management on Tuesday urged its striking employees to accept the “fair offer” made by it but the latter stuck to their stand, saying the two-day old indefinite stir will continue till an ‘amicable’ solution beneficial to them was reached.

The Defence PSU also reiterated its stand that the strike was illegal, a claim rejected by the trade unions.

The employees of HAL across the country, including more than 10,000 here, launched the indefinite strike on Monday, demanding among others wage revision.

Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, HAL Director (Finance) C B Ananthakrishnan explained the financial position of the company and said it wanted to reduce the labour cost from 24 per cent to below 20 per cent.

Our offer is a fair and reasonable, he said.

On Sunday, HAL had said it offered to enhance allowance under the cafeteria system and revised rate of fitment benefit at 11 per cent among others, but the unions did not accept it.

HAL Director (Human Resources) V M Chamola said the management had so far conducted 11 rounds of negotiations with the unions.

There were issues, including cafeteria allowances, which the management tried hard to negotiate, he said.

All-India HAL Trade Unions’ Co-ordination Committee (AIHALTUCC) chief convenor Suryadevara Chandrasekhar on Tuesday rejected HAL’s charge that the employees’ agitation was illegal.

We had informed the management as well as the Labour Commissioner about it before going for a strike, he told reporters here. He also disputed HAL’s claim that wage revision had been effected twice in the past 12 years.

The revision did not take place twice since 2007 but was effected in two parts, he added. The employees unions decided to continue their agitation unless an amicable solution was evolved, he added.